Ignorance to Beauty
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Otogi cared a lot about his appearance, and he wanted those around him to as well. Otogi/Shizuka.


Notes - Set post-Battle City, probably post-series too, and uses Otogi's manga back story. I don't actually support this pairing very much but this drabble has been hanging around waiting to be written for a long time, so it seemed like time to get it done.

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Otogi being beautiful may be considered an opinion, but to the minds of girls all over the world it was fact. And he was very glad to know they felt that way.

Plus, he agreed with them entirely.

Beauty to him was something of value, and something he was willing to spend time trying to obtain. Even his friends thought that it was vanity and seemed to disapprove of it, but it wasn't as if him spending a bit of extra time on his appearance was affecting him being able to spend time with them at all.

What they didn't know about was that there was another reason why he was so devoted to his own image. Well, perhaps not so much of a reason as an origin.

It was all in the past now, surely forgotten about, but years of being raised by someone didn't just disappear overnight. The issue was Otogi's father. The story of how their shop had burned to the ground was hardly unknown, there had been plenty of witnesses and the newspapers had run with it. Anything else about what might have happened that day was but rumours, though a lot of the rumours were true. While nothing could be proved it was enough to affect his father's reputation, but what mattered to Otogi was promoting his own part of the business, the Dungeon Dice Monsters game. He felt it was doing quite well with that.

His father's business problems were not the issue that affected Otogi's vanity, however. That stemmed down to his father's desire to get revenge on Yuugi Motou's grandfather, Sugoroku. Otogi had been raised for the sole purpose of defeating Yuugi and extracting that revenge, a goal that he ultimately failed. But during that time he lived with his masked father, being one of the few people to see the ugly scars beneath that mask. That face had strongly affected him. He could see its lines and scars burned into his memory even now, and for that reason he knew that beauty was one of the aspects of perfection that he must try to obtain.

Even if he couldn't become the King of Games he knew he had the looks that could easily melt the heart of any girl within a ten foot radius. And he was proud of that.

It happened that one day the group were around at his house just for the sake of somewhere different to hang out. That group consisted on Yuugi and his friends, Honda, Jounouchi, Anzu and with them today was Shizuka. For a while now Otogi had been attracted to her and felt today was as good a chance as any to make some progress on winning her heart. He was confident enough to leave Honda, his rival for Shizuka's affections; in the front room with her while he added the finishing adjustments to his mascara for the day.

Because he wasn't wholly heartless he made sure to time their visits during periods when he knew his father wasn't home. Though they didn't talk about the issue much it seemed that his father was accepting of Otogi's unexpected friendship with Yuugi and the others, but it wouldn't do to bait the man or force him to look into the face of his defeat.

For the most part they'd usually be at the Kame Game Shop anyway, but from time to time one of the others would offer their house up to meet with them, and this time had been Otogi's turn. His offer probably had a lot to do with Shizuka's visit.

After a few minutes he heard a volume increase in the muffled noises of the other room as the door was pushed open. Though he didn't have to look away from the mirror to see the reflection of Shizuka walking towards him.

She was quiet as always, holding herself in a way that promoted her vulnerability without even realising it herself. It was that sort of naivety that made Otogi, Honda and her brother Jounouchi concerned when they ever heard about her walking down the street alone. How anyone could grow up radiating that without being hurt at all was beyond him, but it was one of the things that he found attractive about Shizuka. Like anyone who spent more than a few minutes in her company, Otogi felt a strong desire to protect her.

As she reached him he flashed her one of his most charming smiles, to which she blinked indifferently.

That was another thing he liked about her, she was the one girl who seemed immune to his charms.

"I suppose they've sent you through to see if I'll hurry up," he said, knowing that was it.

She nodded nervously, saying, "I don't want to rush you but they… think you've spent a bit too much time in here. My brother said that Anzu and I might spend less time on our appearances than you do."

It wasn't an insult, so he didn't take it as one. By now he was used to Shizuka hanging onto every word that Jounouchi said. She idolised her brother so much, one of the few things that made Otogi feel threatened by his chances with her – since he was as far from Jounouchi as it was possible to get.

"Is he right?" Otogi went on, continuing to apply the makeup as if he hadn't been asked to hurry.

"About what?" she said.

"That I take longer to get ready than you do," he confirmed, smiling at her through the mirror. He knew she couldn't speak for Anzu but he was curious.

Not meeting the reflection of his gaze, she answered, "Well… I don't really spend that much time on my appearance."

"A natural beauty like you wouldn't need to," he replied, having a line prepared for every occasion.

"It's really not that important," she said.

"Your appearance isn't important?" he questioned, freezing mid-stroke with his mascara, "But people judge you by how you look." Surely even she couldn't be as naïve as to think…

"Not really."

Yes, she was that naïve.

"It does to some people," she corrected, "But when people know you well enough it doesn't matter at all."

That didn't seem to compute with him right away. Sure, he knew friendship was more than skin deep, but Otogi was his appearance. If she wasn't judging him on that than what was she judging him on?

"Does… does my appearance matter to you at all?" he asked. He was never usually that transparent when wanting to know something from a potential date, but he really felt that he needed to know what she thought about his beauty if he was to continue pursuing her.

"You look fine, all the girls in my school really like you," she said, vaguely sensing that something was wrong, "And your appearance really makes you happy so that's what's important."

"But what do you think of it?" he pressed.

"I think that…" she paused, considering her answer, "I think that I don't see it as much as other people do. When we first met I couldn't see you at all, but you helped me – so I knew you were a good person. Everything you and Honda have done has been to protect me, so you're both really beautiful people just like my brother is."

That was Shizuka for you, always honest and not realising the sort of impact she had on others.

He found himself not minding that she didn't care about how he looked.

"All right, I'm done now anyway," he said, putting the mascara down and turning to look at her directly for the first time that day, without the aid of the mirror. "Let's go back through before those hooligans destroy the house."

She laughed a little, it was a pretty laugh.

"Anzu and Yuugi are there to stop them from doing that," she replied, but followed him through regardless.

Without even knowing it, Shizuka became the first girl to make Otogi forget about his visual perfection.


End file.
